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A 4K OLED TV for $1,000? Welcome to Prime Day

By Simon Cohen Published June 29, 2021

Image used with permission by copyright holder

We’ve been on the lookout for awesome Prime Day deals on new TVs for a few days now, but I think this one is a game-changer. Best Buy has the Vizio 55-inch 4K OLED TV on sale for $1,000. Let me repeat that: You can now buy an OLED TV for the same price as non-OLED TVs. But don’t wait — as soon as this deal is gone, this Vizio OLED will jump back up to its regular $1,300 price for the foreseeable future.

Not sure why we’re so breathless over OLED? It comes down to picture quality and how OLED TVs achieve it. Normal LED TVs — even those that use quantum dots (QLED TVs) — have a backlight that provides all of the brightness you see on-screen. (You can learn more about QLED vs. OLED TVs in our explainer.) The tricky part is that there are plenty of times when what the image being displayed requires is the exact opposite of brightness. Dark areas should be as dark as possible. The only way non-OLED TVs can achieve this is by dimming the backlight in that area and then blocking the remaining light with their LCD panels. It’s good, but it will never be as perfectly black as OLED because OLED TVs can control their brightness at a pixel level. And when an OLED pixel is turned off, it emits no light at all.

While perfect blacks are a huge reason to go with one of the best OLEDs, it’s not the only reason. OLED TVs are incredibly thin, they exhibit superb color accuracy, and they use a lot less energy than a comparably sized LED or QLED TV. Vizio has layered its own top-notch feature set on its OLED TVs, which give you Google Chromecast, Apple AirPlay 2 (both of which make streaming content from your phone a cinch), plus tons of the most popular streaming apps.

When we tested the Vizio 4L OLED TV, we found that it delivered on its promises, and we gave it a rare 9/10 score. And that was taking into consideration its regular price. Now that it’s been discounted by an additional $300, it’s hard not to see this TV as an absolute must-buy for anyone who wants the very best picture quality at the lowest possible price.

More Prime Day 4K TV deals available now

If this Vizio 55-inch OLED TV isn’t what you’ve been shopping for, there are lots of other fantastic OLED TV deals for Prime Day and Prime Day 4K TV deals to take advantage of. Here are just a few of the more recent ones to get you going:

Former Contributing Editor, A/V

Simon Cohen obsesses over the latest wireless headphones, earbuds, soundbars, and all manner of related devices and…

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